"Streaming 4K with zero buffering" tasmanian.com

 

"SpaceX priced the Starlink Kit at $499 USD. The company states the phased-array dish "is more advanced than what's in fighter jets." The monthly broadband service fee is priced at $99 USD. SpaceX told early customers that they are part of a beta testing phase of the network called "Better Than Nothing Beta" test program. The company sent out an e-mail to potential customers which details what early Starlink users can expect from being part of the program --"As you can see from the title, we are trying to lower your initial expectations," SpaceX wrote, "Expect to see data speeds vary from 50Mb/s to 150Mb/s [megabits per second] and latency from 20ms to 40ms [milliseconds] over the next several months as we enhance the Starlink system. There will also be brief periods of no connectivity at all," the email reads. SpaceX states that as more satellites are deployed to orbit the network's speed and reliability will increase --"As we launch more satellites, install more ground stations and improve our networking software, data speed, latency and uptime will improve dramatically," the company wrote. "For latency, we expect to achieve 16ms to 19ms by summer 2021.""  tasmanian.com

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It is interesting that this report appears on a Tasmanian web news site.  Tasmania is just the sort of place where Starlink will bring high quality internet.  Australia generally in its wilder parts will benefit as well as those far flung islands in the Pacific.

IMO the revenues at Starlink will be prodigious.   The parent SpaceX group needs these to fund their progress toward their stated goal of an autonomous Martian colony.  pl

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/starlink-speed

Comments

[The Twisted Genius]

This isn't a Tasmania-based website. It's a blog started by a Tesla investor and aficionado living in Irvine, California. Nevertheless, Starlink will be a boon for places like Tasmania. One commenter to the article was lamenting about his internet in northern Vermont. His service is far slower than this initial Starlink beta version and costs more. My brother living in northern New Hampshire relies on a line-of-sight radio link to a mountaintop relay station that cables the signals down the mountain to relative civilization. Last Spring, he was remote teaching with that internet link. He's glad he back in the classroom now. Elon will make a bundle on this and deservedly so. A lot of people throughout the world will benefit from this technology.

[Peter Williams]

This is a Tesla fan site, not a Tasmanian site, though I do agree that much of Australia would find the service useful.

I'm 33 km from the Brisbane GPO and was using Sky Muster NBN until a recent mobile tower upgrade allowed me to use 4G connection.

Skylink offers far faster speeds than Sky Muster, lower latency and hopefully more generous data packages.

[Diana L Croissant]

I am excited for my grandchildren's generation.

I can still feel how I felt when we saw that American flag being raised on the moon. Every classroom in the junior high building where I was teaching at the time had that poster on thee wall somewhere.

Thanks for keeping us informed about these things. I'm in Colorado and may hve to find a way down south to drive around the area.

[walrus]

Agree with Peter. The Skymuster satellite service works pretty well for me but I would like to see some competition to drive prices down. We are gradually adopting IoT. The blinds, irrigation, security cameras, etc and for that to continue prices must fall.

[Lesly]

We cut the cord years ago. At least 2 million households did the same in the first quarter of 2020. IMO the cable industry deserves to die for its reluctance to adapt to streaming services and upgrade its redundant content while charging customers more and more. Mississippi recently asked the FCC to investigate AT&T taking $283 million while failing to deploy broadband to rural areas:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/att-took-283-million-but-didnt-deploy-required-broadband-mississippi-says/

We are working from home since March and use Spectrum (fka Time Warner Cable). We pay around $75 monthly for an okay internet connection. I find at least one Spectrum ad in our mail every month promising internet AND cable for an additional $5 for one year. When they call I tell the salesperson I would rather pay 1/2 and keep the same internet service for a year, since they can obviously afford it.

I hope Starlink prices go down. I wonder how many rural American customers can afford $500 up front, and $1200 a year. I wonder how much Musk will charge rural customers in other countries, and if the American taxpayer will be expected to subsidize lower prices abroad, too.

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html

[turcopolier]

lesly

These are prices in the Beta test.

[Serge]

I would gladly pay this price. Lack of suitable internet is the only thing preventing me from packing up to northern Quebec to work from home on some nice plot of land near a lake, always been a dream of mine.

[Alves]

I wonder if this, combined with the push toward remote working caused by COVID-19, will be another nail in the coffin of cities.

Prices are kind of expensive for the third world, though.